The news is usually a big ole melting pot of depressing… someone killed someone, someone threw a suitcase full of kittens into a dumpster (Madre, was that you!? KIDDING!), someone named Charlie Sheen happened, etc. You know, the usual brew of lose-tastic. So, it’s no wonder that I don’t usually have much faith in humanity. I know for a fact that there are wonderful, selfless people out there (I know quite a few), but I keep figuring that those people are getting fewer and fewer because the selfish ones are overtaking the world! Is humanity as a whole inherently good or inherently bad?
The 10-year anniversary of 9/11 just passed and I’ve been watching special after special about those horrific days, mostly focusing on the heroes who risked their lives to try to rescue anyone who may have survived… and many who lost their own lives while doing so. It’s when I watch these kinds of things that my faith in humanity is restored.
I keep wondering what I’d have done had I been in the same situation and all I can think is that I’d have run the other way… I’d have been too scurred and yellow-bellied and run off screaming like an Oprah audience member who’s just been told she’s won a new car. That’s what is in my brain because my brain doesn’t usually think too highly of myself and it always downplays my strength and ability. I never would have thunk I could have come this far on my own weight loss journey… but by taking it one day at a time, I have. That has to count for something, right?
You never know how STRONG you are, until being STRONG is the only choice you have.
This video happened about 3 miles from where I live… just up the street and around the corner. I’ve seen this footage countless times… it’s pretty much gone worldwide since it happened yesterday… and every time I watch it I want to stand up and cheer and hug every last one of these selfless folks. HEROES… a band of ragtag rescuers banding together to save a life… someone they didn’t even know… risking their own lives in the process. Humanity isn’t hopeless… sometimes it just loses it’s way a bit.
Question of the Day: Where were you on 9/11?
The Change sung by Phil Stacey
THE CHANGE
One hand reaches out
And pulls a lost soul from harm
While a thousand more go unspoken for
They say what good have you done
By saving just this one
It’s like whispering a prayer
In the fury of a storm
And I hear them saying you’ll never change things
And no matter what
you do it’s still the same thing
But it’s not the world that I am changing
I do this so this world will know
That it will not change me
This heart
Still believes that love and mercy still exist
While all the hatred rage and so many say
That love is all but pointless in madness such as this
It’s like trying to stop a fire
With the moisture from a kiss
And I hear them saying you’ll never change things
And no matter what you do it’s still the same thing
But it’s not the world that I am changing
I do this so this world will know
That it will not change me
As long as one heart still holds on
Then hope is never really gone
I hear them saying you’ll never change things
And no matter what you do it’s still the same thing
But it’s not the world that I am changing
I do this so this world we know
Never changes me
craving a life 
So I really liked that quote you had in bold up there on your post. I think I should make it my new mantra. I also love this song too. Great post as always. You don’t know this, but you really are inspiring me to be a better person.
Ditto that, Jen! We need to form an inspiration team… STAT! This song makes me bawl on cue… every time I listen to it!
I too have been really touched by the video that took place by USU and the unselfish actions of those people. The two women have stayed very much in the back ground. I was coming down main street when the fire trucks were rushing to turn right on 400 North and then came up 400 North when it was blocked. That is a great story. Also spent much time watching tv over the weekend. The choir had a fabulous broadcast. I flew in from Ohio on Sept 10 of 2001 very late. Bruce was in Peru. One never forgets some events in life.
I missed the choir’s broadcast! I will have to look it up online! You are so right… even if mine was very mundane, I woke up to the news on my alarm clock early, I will never forget where I was!
I hope you are doing okay with your arm, Karen! Take care!
Isn’t that video crazy? I like the lady in flip flops looking underneath. I think she was the mastermind. Go Loganites!
I was in Africa on 9/11, in my little village with no tv. I guess I was about 9 hrs ahead of time, so it happened as I was going to bed. Didn’t hear about it until I turned the shortwave radio on the next morning, but I didn’t realize what a big deal it was until all my villagers kept coming up and telling me how sorry they were (they think everyone knows everyone in America). I didn’t get to a tv for 3 months and by then it was hard to find footage.
Liz… you have the most interesting life. So cool that you were in an African village when 9/11 happened… and so funny that all the villagers think we know everyone in America. It is a small world after all… but not that small!
The lady in the flip flops was totally the mastermind… she has stayed out of the media since!
You did good on this post Whit! There are alot of good people out there and alot of them are right here in Logan, UT and more specifically in our little community. We are blessed to live where we do! Love the song!
It’s my bawl-a-lot song!
That story is SO inspiring. It’s nice to know that there really are people out there that still think life is worth saving.
I was in school on 9/11, taking the ISTEP standardized test to make sure I was learning everything I could or some nonsense. I remember the teacher watching our class for the sections of the test we did that day kept running in and out of the room and was emailing people like crazy, but wouldn’t tell us what was going on. They were afraid it would ruin our test scores.
It wasn’t until lunch that any of us heard what was happening, but even that was just a fractured retelling of snippets that students had heard between teachers. The administration had ordered the teachers not to answer any questions for us or talk to us about it. Finally, I got to my honors algebra 2 class and the radio was on. We huddled around it trying to listen to the news and my math teacher walked in, pushed through all of us and said “sit down and shut up. We have a lesson today.” So I went through the rest of the day not really knowing what had happened.
After school, I found out that the dog that I’d had since I was 1 had passed. It wasn’t a huge surprise as he’d had a stroke the night before, but still really sucked. So, my mom and my aunt went to my house to bury my dog while I babysat my aunt’s video store and FINALLY got to watch some news and hear what had happened. Everyone that came into the video store that afternoon came in for one reason – there was a free television on which they could watch the news with someone else.
It was amazing how people managed to come together after that, but terrible that my school made an attempt to cover it up from the students just because they didn’t want to have to deal with the result. There was still a gag order on the whole thing for the days following and we weren’t allowed to talk about it in any of our classes but the US history/world history classes.
Oh, and we still had to finish the standardized test.
Oh my goodness… that school gag order seems plain ridiculous! Address it head on. It’s something that forever changed the history of the United States… surely that merits some talking about! Laws! Sorry to hear about your dog passing on the same day! 😦
Great post Whitney and I loved the song too.
Question of the Day: Where were you on 9/11?
I remember that day very clearly.
I was at home nursing my son who was 3 months old and my 3.5 yr old daughter was playing on the living room floor as I watched the footage on tv.
It seemed like I was watching some action movie …it really didn’t seem real.
When they replayed the footage over and over and then showed the covering of ash and trash and injured people etc…I was really moved.
That song hits me in the heart every time I hear it!
I so agree with your description of it looking like an action movie, Louisa. I also could not believe what I was watching was real!
Great post, Whit. You are inspiring and full of immense strength! And I was proud to be a Loganite when I saw that video on the news all the way out here in Wisconsin. Way to go Logan!
Go Loganites is right! Adrenaline and people doing selfless things can totally heft up a car. I learned my strength from watching you!
I blogged about the rescue and 9/11 too. We must have been on the same brain wave. You should be frightened. On September 11, I was throwing myself a pity party because I was going through the diagnosis/treatment phase of Graves disease and it kind of rocked my world. It was a big reality check that my problems were not that bad.
Something like that is totes a reality check. I too had to realize my problems were nothing in comparison!